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Common name: Saltwort Family.
Number of genera 1. Number of species 2.
Angiosperm. Magnoliopsida.
Disseminule an intact or entire fruit.
Fruits
Pistil(s) compound; 1; 1-pistillate; with carpels united. Fruit anthocarp, or pericarpium; simple; of authors, but not Spjut berry, or drupe (of authors, but not Spjut); compound; sorosus (Correll & Correll (1972) had "fleshy cone"); without persistent central column; not within accessory organ(s) (fruit developing on peduncle); 4-seeded; 2-carpellate; with carpels united; with carpels remaining united at maturity; without sterile carpels; not sulcate; apex not beaked; wall leathery; indehiscent. Epicarp durable; without armature; without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present; fleshy; composed of 1 unified layer; without lactiform cavity system. Endocarp present; not separating from exocarp; coriaceous; splitting into 1-seeded pyrenes; stone plurilocular; stone 4-loculate; without wing; without operculum; without secretory cavities; without mechanism for seedling escape; without longitudinal ridges. Funiculus short; short without seed bearing hooks (retinacula); not persisting in fruit after seed shed.
Seeds
Aril absent. Seed larger than minute; not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; without caudate appendage(s); at maturity without food reserves; without canavanine. Sarcotesta absent. Testa present; without fleshy or leathery layer over hard layer; surface unsmooth; surface with merged raised features; surface sculptured; without crease or line separating cotyledons from hypocotyl-radicle; without notch along margin where cotyledons from hypocotyl-radicle tip approach each other; without glands; without bristles; without wings; without collar; without operculum; colored; monochrome; membranous; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding embryo.
Embryo differentiated from food reserve; well developed; 1 per seed; completely filling testa (no food reserve); at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; foliate; with spatulate cotyledons (somewhat); straight, or C-shaped (slightly); with cotyledons gradually connected to hypocotyl-radicle; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; with 2 or more cotyledons. Cotyledons 2; well developed; 0.6–0.8 times length of embryo; somewhat to significantly wider than hypocotyl-radicle; 2 times wider than hypocotyl-radicle; flat; smooth; with apices entire; with margins separate; basally entire; equal in size; not punctate dotted. Hypocotyl-radicle well developed; straight; not thickened.
Distribution
New World, Old World. North America, Middle America, South America, southeastern Asia, Australia (northeastern).
Notes
Correll & Correll (1972): Fruit a "fleshy cone" (see fruit drawings).
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
No ASOA or ISTA listed seeds.
Accepted genera
Batis P. Browne
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 456. Correll, D.S. & H.B. Correll. 1972b. Aquatic and wetland plants of southwestern United States, vol. 2. Stanford University Press, Stanford, Calif.; Guppy, H.B. 1906. Observations of a naturalist in the Pacific between 1896 and 1899. Macmillan, New York.
General references
Cronquist, A. 1981. An integrated system of classification of flowering plants, 1,262 p. Columbia University Press, New York, Goldberg, A. 1986 (dicots) and 1989 (monocots). Classification, evolution, and phylogeny of the familes of Dicotyledons. Smithsonian Contr. Bot. 58 for dicots (314 pp.) and 71 for monocots (74 pp.). [Goldberg's illustrations are reproduced from older publications and these should be consulted], Gunn, C.R., J.H. Wiersema, C.A. Ritchie, and J.H. Kirkbride, Jr. 1992 and amendments. Families and genera of Spermatophytes recognized by the Agricultural Research Service. Techn. Bull. U.S.D.A. 1796:1–500, Mabberley, D.J. 1987. The plant-book, 706 p. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Spjut, R.W. 1994. A systematic treatment of fruit types. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 70:1–182.
Illustrations
Poor fruit and seed illustrations. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or fruit incomplete, or embryo. Fruit illustration(s): Cronquist. Fruit illustration(s): Karen. Embryo illustration(s): Karen. Karen's plate number and taxon (taxa): 138: Batis sp. (A-B).
• Fruit. 1 of 4. Batis maritima L.: fruiting head. • Fruit. 2 of 4. Batis maritima L.: fruits. • Seed. 3 of 4. Batis maritima L.: seeds. • Embryo. 4 of 4. Batis maritima L.: embryo.
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘J.H. Kirkbride, Jr., C.R. Gunn, and M.J. Dallwitz. 2000 onwards. Family guide for fruits and seeds: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. Version: 12th April 2021. delta-intkey.com’.
